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[kinesthesis-and-words]

Came up with a fun design on a practice book and wanted to share it in case anyone else liked it as much as I did.

Steps below --

Step 1: Start with an alternative half-binding (as described by DAS).

Step 2: Cut out two strips of your preferred pattern. I created this overlapping circle design in Photoshop and cut it from cardstock on my Cricut.

Step 3: Glue the top color to the bottom. A glue stick works well here but feel free to use PVA if you know the secret to not getting it everywhere.

Step 4: Glue the strips over the decorative paper edges. Use a glue stick to glue it down, then re-glue any loose sections with PVA on a tiny paint brush.

[kinesthesis-and-words]

Title: The Shadow of His Wings

Author: Mirabella  

Fandom: Harry Potter

Year: 2005

Words: 293k

Pages: 864

No story has ever captivated me as completely as The Shadow of His Wings. I’ve read it dozens of times in all the years since it was last updated, and every single time, I’m impressed by its scope, intricacy and beauty.

And if that sounds melodramatic, please consider that I spent two months turning this fic into a book when I’m not even a huge fan of Harry Potter. That’s how good this story is.

So, onto the details.

The text block is made up of 16-page (4-sheet) signatures bound with sewing thread in 6-punch kettle stitching. I don’t own a guillotine, so I focused on keeping the signatures as straight as humanly possible. The process took hours (and hours, and hours), so it’s definitely not a recommended approach for impatient people or anyone with an actual social life.

The cover is vaguely related to a non-standard quarter-binding. But instead of one sheet of paper with bookcloth on both sides, I alternated decorative paper and bookcloth in vertical stripes.

I’ve been wanting to incorporate lace into my projects for a while but could never quite find the right kind. Then...finally...it dawned on me that I bought a Cricut for this hobby and I could make my own. (For certain values of “lace.”)

The endpapers are shimmery gold with black cardstock “lace” glued into the crease. It’s highly impractical but the effect is pretty great.

(Behind the scenes: practice makes perfect!)

Materials list:

20lb cream paper from Hammermill

Italian bookcloth in black from Hollander’s

Headbands in black from Hollander’s

Cover paper and gold paper from my local paper store (they don’t sell online, otherwise I would share it)

Cricut iron-on foil in gold for the spine title

Title font in Sunshine (dafont)

Feather wreath from VASdigital on etsy

Printer’s ornaments from HQDigitalArt on etsy

“Lace” designs from IamPolonia on etsy

Side note: Shimmer paper is lovely but it shows every little crease and smudge of glue. 0/10 would not endpaper again.

[kinesthesis-and-words]

I finally mustered the courage to print this 800+ page fic. I’m weeks away from having a finished book to show for it, but hey, it’s a start.

(Does anyone else get the heebie-jeebies when they hit print? Just me?)

Feather wreath by VASdigital on etsy

Title font in Sunshine

[kinesthesis-and-words]

Some weeks ago, I offered my fledgling bookbinding skills to friends and coworkers, hoping for a task that would keep me busy and make someone smile. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was thrilled to be asked to bind this lovely collection of children’s stories that my coworker’s father used to tell him when he was little. ★

(Some elements have been obscured because this is the internet.)

I knew I wanted a colorful, fun look for the cover. Scrapbook paper offered the most options, but the design I chose was printed on very thick paper and the first attempt resulted in ugly, mangled corners. So I tried again with a non-standard half-binding (as described by DAS Bookbinding) which minimized how much scrapbook paper had to be folded.

My usual 20lb paper was too thin and the illustrations were visible through the pages, but 22lb paper worked nicely without making the paper too stiff. It also helped “bulk up” this very skinny book.

And yes, the title font is Papyrus. The source material I was given was all in Papyrus, so I kept the theme for the headers and replaced the rest of the text with Garamond.

Materials list:

Italian bookcloth in ivory from Hollander’s

22lb 98 brightness white paper

Ella and Viv “Through the Trees” scrapbook paper

Green cardstock

[kinesthesis-and-words]

My heart still belongs to the fic authors of the early 2010s. Mirabella remains one of my favorites, though her last fic was posted in 2013 (to my knowledge). She's been such an inspiration to me for so many years that as soon as I got into ficbinding, I knew I needed to hold one of her stories in my hands.

Title: Towards Zero

Author: Mirabella

Fandom: Inception

Year: 2010

Words: 15k

This turned out so much better than it had any right to. The colored smoke paper came from a scrapbook pack I found on clearance. The paper was a bit too thick and I struggled with the corners, but if you squint it’s not too bad.

Because the fic focuses on dreaming, I wanted to stick with a “dream-like” feel. Instead of hard lines in the quarter binding, I made an utterly bonkers attempt to layer gold glitter cardstock between the bookcloth and the paper, cut into waves with my Cricut. I thought for sure it would all go in the trash, but something actually went right today, and just look at it! So worth the risk.

Typesetting has been my weak spot so far, but I tried harder here. In the fic, the chapter numbers count down from 5 then back up to 5. I represented that with vertical dots leading in either direction depending on where the story was. And the title font was the closest I could find for the original Inception movie font.

The endpapers are a purple shimmery cardstock. It’s hard as heck to photograph, but it’s gorgeous.

Materials list:

Gilded paper pad by Recollections

Italian bookcloth in light blue from Hollander’s

Headband in black from Hollander’s

Cricut iron-on vinyl in white

Thick glitter cardstock in gold